Author Archives: emn2

“Night terrors” have taken on a whole new meaning for me. Around 2am I was awoken to the feeling of something squirming and fluttering…in my ear. You better believe I screamed loud enough to wake both my roommate and
neighbors up. I reached into my ear and the creature squirmed further in to where I could no longer reach or see it. Even just typing these words down and remembering the feeling of something making its way down my ear canal gives me goosebumps. The feeling was one of the strangest (and most horrifying) things I have ever experienced.

American Cockroach Taken by Brockett Film Fauna, Inc.

I couldn’t see it or feel it, but I knew it was in there. And it needed to come out. Naturally, I turned to Google, which suggested flushing my ear out with mineral water or baby oil. I didn’t have either of those, but the next best thing was tap water. I flushed my ear out several times until the insect finally spewed out. It fell to the floor and I immediately captured it. To my surprise and horror, it was not a small beetle or tiny fly—it was an American cockroach (Periplaneta americana)!!

Upon telling my story to my friends the next day, I got many comments such as, “No way! That’s an old wives’ tale!” and “You’re lucky it didn’t lay its eggs there!” Upon doing research, however, I found some interesting details. First of all, it is not an old wives’ tale—many hospitals in big cities remove many cockroaches from patients’ ears a week! I also realized that I was extremely lucky—most cockroaches that go into peoples’ ears are caught too late, causing excruciating pain and a trip to the emergency room. Due to my prompt reaction and the small size of the cockroach, I was able to get it out without enduring pain or visiting the ER.

So why do cockroaches travel into your ear canal? Is it really to lay their eggs there? Or to feed on your brain?!

Cockroaches, as it turns out, do not go in search of a human ear to use as a nest or in search of delicious brain food. According to Chris Williams, “Cockroaches end up in ears because they literally stumble upon them during their wanderings,

Cockroach Near Ear Canal by Emma Edwards

and being cockroaches who like small, dark spaces, they check it out.” So, a curious cockroach travels up into your ear canal as it seems like a suitable environment to live. They soon learn, however, that a waxy and tiny canal is not the best place for survival. Why, then, do they stay there? Why don’t they just leave?

Apparently, cockroaches are too wide to turn around in the narrow ear canal. Additionally, according to Chris Williams,“They’re not so good at the concept of backing out”. Thus, instead of just going in reverse to get out of the ear, they tend to burrow further into the ear canal and will eventually get stuck there.

Is it just adventurous cockroaches that get stuck in peoples’ ears? The answer, unfortunately, is no. According to Dr. Barrie Tan, he has seen many insects, from ants and moths to even bees, stuck in peoples’ ears before. Yuck!

If this ever happens to you, remember: DON’T try and get it out with a Q-tip or tweezers! According to this case study, doing so can cause cerumen (earwax) impaction as well as crushing the insect, making it harder for it to get out. Just try flushing it out with oil or mineral water, and if that doesn’t work , go to the ER.

For more information about  American cockroaches and they’re mischievous activities, click here.

Photo of a Rhinoceros beetle taken (by me) at the Houston Natural Science Museum

Coming to a butterfly garden, I didn’t expect this.

In a place where colorful, graceful, and beautiful creatures flutter freely, who knew this beast could be living right next door? As I got to go “behind the scenes” of the natural science museum in Houston, Texas, I saw for the first time an insect that just did not look like it could be real. Perhaps in a sci-fi horror film where large, disgusting insects take over the cities, or maybe in prehistoric times when were centipedes as large as automobiles, but certainly not now, in 2013, in a back room of a science museum.

It was called the Japanese rhinoceros beetle, and it was the most terrifying insect I had ever seen in real life. It was huge; its width was the entire size of a human palm. It was jet black, with two large horns that looked like pincers sticking out of its head. You can imagine my surprise when the woman who had brought me to the room confidently stuck her hand into its cage and scooped it right up.

No, those weren’t pincers. It was not aggressive, nor evil, and did not attack anybody in the room. Instead it calmly sat on her palm, letting everyone in the room caress its black body.

What was the point of those deadly looking horns if not used for clamping onto threats or meals? As it turns out, the horns themselves are worn by males mainly just for show. Here, we see a wonderful example of sexual selection.

In this article from Discover Magazine, Ed Yong states that “the growth of the horns is intimately tied into molecules that reflect how well-nourished the beetles are”, and thus “females can rely on the size of the horns to judge a potential partner’s health”. So, the bigger the horn, the more potential for mating! And, as we know, there is nothing an insect likes more than to mate (along with eating).

So just how large can these horns grow? According to Stephanie Pappas, some males grow horns up to two-thirds their body size! That is ridiculously massive. To put that in perspective, that would be like the average 5’10” human male having horns on his head that extended nearly 4 feet!

It would seem as though with such huge horns, perhaps the mobility or flight of the beetle may be at a disadvantage. (Wouldn’t you expect a man with 4 foot horns sticking out of his head to be maybe just a little bit impaired?) This, however, does not seem to be the case with the rhinoceros beetle. In this scientific journal, it is explained how testing was done on rhinoceros beetles to come to this conclusion. McCollough chose rhinoceros beetles who had horns about two-thirds their body length. After euthanizing them, she weighed them with and without their horns. She also determined the center of mass of the beetles with and without their horns, as well as how the horns affected drag on the beetles’ bodies.

The findings were a surprise! The horns were very dry and hollow, making up only .5%-2.5% of the beetles’ body weight. Thus, they hardly changed the beetles’ center of mass. The beetles fly slowly with their bodies almost vertical; in such a position, the horns do not affect the flying at all.

Photo of a Rhinoceros Beetle taken by Devon Troutman

So beetles with the biggest horns get the females AND don’t have to pay for it? Sounds like the best of both worlds to me. It seems as though in the insect world, sometimes the beast does, in fact, win over the beauty.

To see more picture of the amazing rhinoceros beetle, you can go here.